The invention relates generally to a method for e-mail communication, and more specifically, to a method for handling e-mail communication by an e-mail server. The invention further relates to a computing system and a computer program product for handling e-mail communication by an e-mail server.
In today's interconnected world, e-mail communication plays a significant role in the traffic over the Internet. Many e-mails are sent to a large number of recipients. This may cause a large burden for involved e-mail clients and e-mail services because e-mails, including partially large attachments or potentially large e-mail bodies, are stored in the mailbox of each individual recipient as well as any replicated form on an e-mail server. This may require a lot of storage space for the various copies and thus a waste of computing and storage resources. Replies to all recipients of a distribution list result in even more copies. For example, the same content may be stored 10 or 20 times and thus, may require 10 or 20 times as much storage space in a computer network compared to the original e-mail.